Internal ATI memos and roadmaps have revealed to us that the
next generation 80nm RV570 and RV560 GPUs will not require a master card to operate
in Crossfire mode. Both GPUs have on-board Crossfire support, meaning they
are both effectively "masters."

Without master cards, ATI will also be dropping the external Crossfire TDMS
transmitter. Radeon X1300 and Radeon X1600 require neither the dongle nor
master cards to operate in Crossfire mode, but they are relatively low end
cards as well. Unfortunately, all is not beer and Skittles: the same
memos claiming RV570 and RV560 have on-chip Crossfire support also claim that
the chips may require a PCB bridge to really operate in full Crossfire
mode. This is extremely similar to NVIDIA's SLI implementation.

These memos also reveal to us that due to the on-chip Crossfire will allow the
possibility of multi-GPU dice and packaging. Several manufacturers
attempted multiple GPUs on a single card over the last couple years with very
minimal success.

"So if you want to save the planet, feel free to drive your Hummer. Just avoid the drive thru line at McDonalds." -- Michael Asher